With hopes for improvement in the striped bass population fading, officials are looking to further tighten fishing restrictions. This is Don Rush. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is looking at a further 12% reduction in both the commercial catch and for recreational anglers. In a weekly series of Bay Journal, we talk with associate editor and senior writer Tim Wheeler.
“And they saw a big jump last year, particularly in the recreational catch that worried them a little bit and it made them concerned that they were not going to meet their target for rebuilding the stock by 2029 to what these fisheries experts consider a sustainable level. They've been looking at various options for requiring further reductions. And the commission's striped bass management board when it met August 6th, agreed on an addendum to the fishery management plan for the East coast. That would require about a 12% reduction in overall catch for both recreational and commercial sectors starting next year,” Wheeler said.
So what are they looking at there?
“For the commercial side, it will be just basically a reduction in the quota and the overall number of pounds of fish that they can harvest. For the recreational side, it will be a little bit more varied. The two main ways to achieve the reduction that they have sort of considered are altering the size limit and or expanding periods when the striped bass are off limits to catch. And some of the states, as you'll remember, Maryland already has periods when the season is closed in the spring and in the late summer. This could conceivably for recreational angling mean that there might be some additional days when they could not bring home striped bass,” Wheeler explained.
So looking at the 12% reduction, what's been the reaction to all of this?
“The Charter Boat Association said they've really been hurt by the loss of the ability to let their clients catch two fish a day. That occurred last year and it was resisted by them, Maryland had been pretty much alone among all the East Coast states in allowing that. And at the time, Maryland DNR said that they were doing it with the understanding that the charter boat captains would provide enhanced reporting of their catch, which would give the state a little better idea of what was being caught in the bay. But there was a lot of resentment among the recreational anglers, the folks who just catch them on their own in their boats or off their pier on the shore, and they were only allowed to catch one and they felt it was unfair and so it was taken away. And the charter boat folks say that it's cost them substantial amount of business,” said Wheeler.
Has there been indication as to why striped bass have been struggling outside of perhaps over harvesting? Or are there other factors?
“Over harvesting is a relative thing. Basically, if you have a lot of fish, it's hard to over harvest. The problem here is that we've had a string of poor reproduction six years running in Maryland. The young of the year survey that Maryland Natural Resources does every summer has come up with really very few juvenile striped bass. And that's an indication that there has not been a good reproduction out there. And as I said, the last decent one was in 2018, so you can see how far back that was. Everybody will be watching to see what the returns are from this year's survey when they're announced. Usually in the fall, the Virginia end, they've not had quite that string of poor reproduction, but they've had poor reproduction for the last two years. So the Chesapeake is the primary spawning and nursery ground for the entire coast-wide population of striped bass,” Wheeler said.
Tim Wheeler, Bay Journal associate editor and senior writer on the move to further restrict fishing for the striped bass. Full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM, this is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
